5 Power Moms Worth Celebrating

These successful women haven't had to sacrifice a family

Ellen Kullman, DuPont

Position: President, Chair and CEOFamily: Married with a daughter and twin sons

Last but not least, we have a person who Forbes named the fourth most powerful woman in the world in 2011: Ellen Kullman, CEO of DuPont (NYSE:DD).

She starter her career at General Electric (NYSE:GE) and was later a director at General Motors (NYSE:GM). Then 20 years after becoming a marketing manager at DuPont, she became the first female CEO at its helm.

In her mind, though, being a mom and CEO actually go hand-in-hand. As she said in an interview, “Parenting is good training to be CEO because we can’t control our children’s actions. I think it helped me become more patient. It helped me understand that just because I said so wasn’t a reason for them to do anything.”

She also added that it helped her narrow her focus.

“When you manage a household, three kids, all the stuff, you’ve got to focus on the important stuff. And not the little stuff,” she said. “And I think that’s very, very true in business.”